Julie Aubé, a gourmet nutritionist with a passion for proximity, presents her thoughts on 2024 trends in the culinary tourism sector. A year that promises to be rich in flavours! ⤵️
The trends shared in this capsule are not the fruit of scientific study, but of observations of the agrotourism and culinary worlds, as well as testimonials from participants in various culinary tourism activities. A common thread links these trends together: a growing desire for meaning and connection. 🌱🌎
Content
1- Eat at the farm
Since people are looking for meaningful experiences and connection, the communion between field and plate reaches new heights when it’s possible to enjoy a farm’s produce directly on site, and in the company of the inspiring humans who grow, raise or create it. 🌾
What better way to create a memorable connection between agri-tourism businesses and their products than to offer opportunities to eat on the farm! Our ever-growing range of formulas can be adapted to suit your needs and locations, facilities, teams and availability: picnic baskets offered on occasion, permanent lunch counters, occasional culinary tables by reservation, it’s all possible…. and in demand! 🍽️
Many farms are exploring original formulas for farm brunches, farm afternoon teas, dairy bars, guest chefs and other tempting ideas for inviting visitors to eat on the farm: they’re all good! 🌱
Eating on the farm has a high potential for memorability for culinary tourists: these meals extend their time on site and create new links between the land, the farmers, the territory and the flavours. All the elements of meaning that are attached to the products (stories, anecdotes, landscapes, etc.) deepen the experience, and the traceability of ingredients amplifies the connection. 🌍
2- Get your hands dirty
Visiting is great. Doing, touching, helping, participating, trying, experimenting – in other words, getting your hands dirty in one way or another – is a unique experience that culinary tourists can enjoy. 👐
There are as many styles of agritourism hospitality as there are farmers: the important thing is to have an offer that reflects your image. If it’s in your DNA to share your know-how, many gourmet tourists are keen to experience this type of participatory activity, which goes beyond more traditional visits. Indeed, there’s something highly memorable about visitors getting their hands dirty in one way or another. 🤗
In addition to being unique, this creates an intimate relationship between the gourmet tourist’s experience and the producer’s reality. There are many examples, to be adapted to different types of production. Supervised pick-your-own (e.g., small group on a special day)? Sausage or spread-making workshops? A one-day visit from a cheese-maker to take part in milking, ladling fresh cheeses and brushing cheese wheels? Sensory tours during which we organize more in-depth product tastings? Pick-your-own workshops followed by the creation of infusions? There seems to be a growing interest in experiences that offer both a human connection and a touch of savoir-faire. 🧀
3- Explore the off-season
There are popular springtime experiences like sugaring-off time, and autumnal ones like apple and pumpkin picking. Apart from these classic activities, agrotourism and culinary tourism explode during the summer, which is natural when the agricultural season is in full swing. Yet our four-season territory has the potential to offer culinary tourism experiences that span the calendar, and it seems we’re seeing it more and more.🌳
This trend towards off-season agrotourism and culinary tourism is an interesting one, as it multiplies opportunities to connect with the people who feed, and also with the different personalities of a territory that changes with the seasons.🌷
For example, orchards knit activities during the fruit blossom season, cheese-makers organize a winter raclette, cider-makers organize frozen apple picking, and other farmers take advantage of a quieter season to set up on-farm workshops, such as turning their frozen berries into jam. 🍎
Nos quatre saisons et leurs ambiances uniques font partie de notre identité nordique, et sont remplies de potentiel créatif pour des activités de tourisme gourmand. On combine le sport d’hiver sur nos terres avec une visite de nos installations? On fait un BBQ hivernal : on sort les couvertures et on allume des feux de joie? Ou on s’installe plutôt bien au chaud pour une activité spéciale de mise en valeur de nos produits en cuisine? 🌨️
4- Sleeping on a farm
There are times for gourmet stops on the road, and there are other occasions to take your time at the farm. To gently immerse yourself, to slowly soak up the surroundings. To do this, there is the possibility of sleeping on certain farms, which seems to be in demand. 🌿
A trend that could echo Slow travel. There are a number of different ways of sleeping on a farm, but the offer is still discreet in Quebec if we compare it to other parts of the world, or to the number of times people look for a farm stay without finding what they’re looking for here in the province. It’s a trend for which there seems to be plenty of room. The formulas are numerous: rooms for rent, bed & breakfast, small cottages for rent, glamping or camping formulas, or even the option of parking your RV for the night. 🛌
The experience of one (or more) overnight stays on a farm offers an opportunity to immerse oneself in agricultural territory, to make the moment last with both feet in the field. The tourist can watch the daylight evolve over the gardens, hear the morning’s activities getting underway, admire the cows coming out of the barn after milking or the poultry going out to pasture for the day, witnessing the rhythm of farming in a more intimate and possibly more memorable way through this prolonged immersion. Given the interest in authentic, immersive experiences, as well as the search for meaning and connection, farm accommodation seems to be an interesting trend. 🌄
5- Breaking down barriers
Culinary tourism naturally places great emphasis on agriculture and the flavors of the farm and the region. In addition, more and more farms are opening the doors of their land and facilities to various cultural activities: music, storytelling, pottery or painting classes, poetry, meditation, and so on. 🎶🎨
Farms that host such non-agricultural activities become a kind of meeting place, a place for cultural exchange and connection. Just what visitors tend to look for. 🤝
Putting on a variety of activities on the farm helps to keep people coming back for more: maybe a tourist wouldn’t come back for a second visit to the farm they’ve already been on, but maybe they’d come back to enjoy an inspiring environment to explore some other interests, practice their yoga, take part in a birdwatching hike, attend a talk by a local author, or discover an artist… passing by the farm store before heading home. The quest for meaning, meaningful experiences and connection seems to be a growing trend, and offering unifying activities that open up partitions and multiply possibilities seems perfectly aligned with a desire for the real thing. 🌟
6- Get caught up in the game
If play is fun, engaging, and adds pleasure to a moment, why not integrate it in some way into your agrotourism and culinary tourism offering? Play is stimulating, and not just for kids! 👧👦
Making farm visits dynamic and interactive by sprinkling in elements of play echoes a certain trend towards “gamification”. 🕹️🌾
Whether for adults (e.g., a quiz on wine-making), or for the whole family (e.g., a treasure hunt), there seem to be many ideas for entertaining visitors while creating a favorable context for connecting, learning and creating meaning. The game can use traditional media (e.g. cardboard, panels, etc.) or technology (e.g. screens, buttons to weigh, QR codes to scan, audio capsules to listen to, etc.), and can be animated or self-guided. 🤓🔍
In short, there seem to be opportunities for all tastes and styles. Whatever the games imagined and the tools employed, gamification has the potential to capture attention in a context of pleasure, as well as to increase engagement and motivation, which is certainly of interest to agrotourism and gourmet tourism. 🚀
